How I got my mantra...
From my journal about 30 years ago:
"Saturday I went to the TM center in Amherst on Lincoln St. (sort of near Whitmore). The place is just a house. House-shaped. It has a sign near the front door saying "Transcendental Meditation Program". I park at the nearby Lincoln Apartments.
So I went Saturday at 3:00 with 6 daisies, two grapefruits and 1 handkerchief... met my two teachers. One, Tony I think, took me upstairs. This was the scary / weird part.
Up there, there was incense burning on a table that had a portrait of Guru Dev, some rice, brown powder (cinnamon?). Anyway, he gave me one of the flowers to hold and said I should just stand there and witness this little ceremony to give thanks to Guru Dev. So he started speaking Hindi real softly. I guess it was Hindi. He put a little rice in a dish with the handerchief, put the fruit on, dipped a flower in water, sprinkled the water on, etc. etc. etc. The whole bit. Then, at the end, he got on his knees, and that's about it.
This whole thing made me a bit nervous. It doesn't happen to me every day...
Then we sat down and he gave me my mantra. I can't tell you what it is. I'm not supposed to. It's a two syllable sound.
Anyway... after that, he taught me how to meditate, which is basically just repeating the mantra silently in the mind with your eyes closed. After we did that for a little while, we went downstairs and I meditated in a room alone for about 20 minutes. Then we talked about it afterwards.
They give you a lot of questionnaires too, which I don't like. They ask things like, were you relaxed, and did you become unaware of your body and your surroundings. I never know what to write...
So anyway, they sent me home with a flower, an apple and my handkerchief."
"Saturday I went to the TM center in Amherst on Lincoln St. (sort of near Whitmore). The place is just a house. House-shaped. It has a sign near the front door saying "Transcendental Meditation Program". I park at the nearby Lincoln Apartments.
So I went Saturday at 3:00 with 6 daisies, two grapefruits and 1 handkerchief... met my two teachers. One, Tony I think, took me upstairs. This was the scary / weird part.
Up there, there was incense burning on a table that had a portrait of Guru Dev, some rice, brown powder (cinnamon?). Anyway, he gave me one of the flowers to hold and said I should just stand there and witness this little ceremony to give thanks to Guru Dev. So he started speaking Hindi real softly. I guess it was Hindi. He put a little rice in a dish with the handerchief, put the fruit on, dipped a flower in water, sprinkled the water on, etc. etc. etc. The whole bit. Then, at the end, he got on his knees, and that's about it.
This whole thing made me a bit nervous. It doesn't happen to me every day...
Then we sat down and he gave me my mantra. I can't tell you what it is. I'm not supposed to. It's a two syllable sound.
Anyway... after that, he taught me how to meditate, which is basically just repeating the mantra silently in the mind with your eyes closed. After we did that for a little while, we went downstairs and I meditated in a room alone for about 20 minutes. Then we talked about it afterwards.
They give you a lot of questionnaires too, which I don't like. They ask things like, were you relaxed, and did you become unaware of your body and your surroundings. I never know what to write...
So anyway, they sent me home with a flower, an apple and my handkerchief."